Ace of Hearts
by EleanorKate
Summary: Single chapter fic. Shelagh is taught a lesson but it's Patrick that never forgets.


"Settled?" Patrick asked as he wandered into the sitting room, a cup of coffee in either hand, seeing her with her back to him as he picked his way between the settees.

They had a rather nice evening of supper and now Tim was in bed, there was some time to be had for themselves and as this had been her suggestion, he had acquiesced with a smile. It was curious, Patrick had thought, to ponder a life like she had once had with all its restrictions but how uplifting it might just be to now see the world through different eyes. All these things that she had begun to experience anew, even the simple ones of perhaps a trip to the hairdresser or even the touch of mascara she was now wearing and he was really rather quite pleased she had chosen to do do them in his company.

Shelagh smiled up from her seat, legs tucked underneath her as she sat on the floor. "Yes, thank you".

She felt and sounded, it seemed, really rather quite content with the world and under his roof these days and that little question was starting to teeter in the back of his mind. The place was bright again; had life and it had crossed his mind more than once if he could suggest to her that it was made permanent.

"Do we have to sit on the floor?" Patrick asked standing over as he reached down and passed her a cup.

"Yes we do!" Shelagh replied sweetly eyes following him over the top of the cup as she took a sip and he stepped over to the spot in front of her on the rug. He put his own cup down on the hearth and with a heave sat cross legged on the carpet.

"Now, before we start can I ask you something?" Shelagh questioned seeing him straighten his trouser legs.

"Of course" Patrick replied, taking the pack out of his cardigan pocket and deciding that he might just about manage the floor for now but he wasn't sure for how long his knees would!

"Go slowly and explain?" Shelagh pleaded, "I won't remember it all first time round".

"I will" he said, with a consolatory smile, reaching across the minute space between them to gently squeeze her knee. Patrick felt more confident about little signs of affection recently and she hadn't pushed away the hand on her elbow or the base of her spine or when she had slipped down the step outside the surgery and he had had to make a grab for her wherever he could to stop her crashing onto the floor. Patrick knew he had to patient though; the change so vast in her life now that perhaps steps of the more infantile kind were necessary with her. Things could change in a heartbeat again and he would rather they not as this was really quite _pleasant._

"Now are you ready?" he asked, seeing her put her cup next to his.

"Of course!" Shelagh responded clasping her hands together in anticipation for her lesson, even though she had been strangely nervous of having to learn something new at her age. "I'd like to learn a new skill!"

Patrick laughed quickly, shaking the cards from the pack into his right hand. "Poker is hardly a skill….." Mind you, he thought, his grandfather had certainly made a few pounds in his time from it, not all necessary legal at the same time and he had taught his grandsons a trick or two that Patrick might consider employing one of these days.

"Patrick?" she asked, watching his hands shuffle the cards from one to the other, flicking them back and forth so they settled intertwined with each other thinking how complicated even that looked as he formed them into an arch and flattened the pack again.

"Hmmm?" he asked, not looking up as neatened the pile and dealt out five cards to himself and five cards to her. The deck was placed on the floor face down between them as he gestured for her to pick up her pile of cards. "Keep them facing you so I don't see". She nodded quickly realising as he gently pushed the hand held tightly onto the cards towards her so there were no hints.

"Oh... alright..." she replied, forgetting she was going to ask him to teach her how to shuffle the cards too.

"Now the Ace plays high" he carried on, "so it's higher than a King but it's not worth eleven. That's Blackjack".

"Alright" Shelagh replied as she cast her eye over the cards in her hand, careful not to reveal them to him, working though the logic or lack thereof that a card that seemed to be worth more than a King, a ten, that couldn't be eleven. She decided not to question as it would probably lead to a more convoluted answer and make things even more complicated than they should be.

"Now" Patrick started, thinking through the hands in his head. "You can get a straight flush – like King, Queen, Jack, ten and nine in the same suit or a Royal Flush that has the ace, King, Queen, Jack and ten. The best cards win each time". She nodded. That seemed easy. "Four of a Kind is any four cards that are the same. Full House is three of a kind and one pair of anything. Straight is a hand of any five cards in sequence, but not of the same suit is a straight flush. Three of a kind is like three eights or three jacks, two pair is the same and is one pair".

He could see she was storing the information away. "And make sure you don't give me any tells".

She knew what 'tells' were, well if you were talking about babies and when they wanted feeding, but wasn't quite so sure about card games and he could see she was half confused.

"A smile if you have a good hand" he clarified. "Looking downcast if you don't, that type of thing". Her face adopted what she thought was 'as straight as a board' and he tried not to laugh. For a moment she wondered what he found so amusing until she realised that she must have looked suddenly far too serious and smiled shyly at him.

"First you need to place a bet" he continued seeing that look on her face, wondering if she thought he was truly laughing at her. "Say one chip is one penny". The pile of chips, painted wood, was in front of them both – in blue, red and yellow.

"Where did you get these?" Shelagh replied picking up one of the red ones, marked and scratched around the edges; the paint having peeled off in places leaving the wood underneath.

"Found them in the cupboard under the stairs. Dad had them before me. I think they were actually his father's. He used to play poker in the pub all the time and well, let's just say that he had a few close shaves with local constabulary…." He cleared his throat. "Right you need to place a bet into the pot" Patrick continued taking a blue chip and putting it by the rest of the deck. She followed suit with the red chip she had been toying with.

"Now you can replace three cards if you want to off the deck. Choose the ones you think don't help you and put them aside" Patrick continued to explain.

Shelagh nodded, and pursed her lips; hoping that it wasn't a 'tell' but she was trying to remember what he said about pairs, flushes and full houses. She placed two cards down to discard; Patrick thinking she must have a pair at least. He had one so he followed suit and between them, five cards were taken from the deck.

"So we bet again…." Patrick began, taking two blue chips this time deciding to raise the game. His pair of cards he now had was fairly healthy and there was no harm in upping the stakes. They were only playing for fun after all. "Now you can either see me - match the bet - or raise me another chip or two, or fold. Give up". She nodded again. "And if no-one folds we keep going until someone does"."

"So if I think my hand isn't worth the bet, I fold?" Shelagh clarified.

"Yes".

Shelagh tipped her head to one side, pushing a smile away. "Raise you three" she said, confidently putting three red chips into the growing pile.

"Oh!" Patrick smiled, thoroughly intrigued as his eyebrows rose, wondering whether it was naive audacity on her part or she was in fact in possession of a rather respectable hand. He'd added another pair to his hand and two eights and two queens could provide a decent win. "Right". Patrick considered matters for a moment and picked up three chips of his own and set them down for sport. "See your three and raise you one more".

"Four?" Shelagh questioned, not hesitating in picking up four red chips and laying them down in challenge. She had no idea whether she was doing this right or wrong but it was never a case of going all out to win. Or at least perhaps not this time.

Patrick looked up at her and she saw a twitch on his face. "Five" he said simply and she heard the clunk of more chips hit the pile.

"Five?" She smiled this time. "Six". Six more red chips were carefully placed on the growing mountain between them and she did wonder, for fun of course, how much farther she could push him.

"Alright so we turn over the cards and see who has the winning hand" Patrick began thinking perhaps just to write this one off as practice as he didn't really want to embarrass her.

She took it that he was 'folding' and he placed all five cards face up on the carpet. He'd been quite sure his two queens and two eights might have done an otherwise good job and he was half prepared to be sympathetic and understanding if he won and she had a terrible hand. That was until with grace she carefully, piece by piece, laid the cards down beside his. She daren't look him in the eye quite yet even though as her heart swelled a little with pride.

"Winner takes all?" she asked innocently.

"Winner takes all" Patrick repeated, seeing her scoop up the pile of red and blue chips over onto her side of the rug and as he took up the deck of cards again and _that hand_.

"That's just beginner's luck…." He continued mournfully as she smiled gleefully at him, as he compared the cards to hers. _Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten. A Royal Flush._ Now what were the odds of that?

Shelagh watched as he shuffled the cards again and she carefully took another sip of her coffee, his face somewhat disgruntled she thought as she carefully sorted her hoard of chips.

She might just enjoy learning to play Poker after all…..


End file.
